The Bible has a remarkable story about a woman named Leah, who discovered that finding true love was difficult (Genesis 29:21-35; 30:1-21). Leah was caught up in a struggle to earn her husband’s love. Three sons later, she was still clinging to the hope that one day, he would wake up and start to appreciate her. She kept waiting and waiting. Eventually, Leah gave birth to another son, her fourth. Leah named him Judah and announced “Now I will praise God.” Judah’s name means something special. It means to praise or be thankful to God. But how could she praise God when her outward circumstances had not changed? (WHY?)

With the birth of her fourth son, Leah had a life altering realization. She realized that while her husband refused to love her, God was present in her life! God had noticed every pain, every sorrow, every moment of rejection she had ever experienced and He was pouring blessings into her life (Genesis 29:31). God loved her unconditionally!

Leah did not realize it at the time, but Leah, and her son Judah, were ancestors of a man named Jesus. This is the Jesus, whom Christians worship and who the entire Bible anticipated. It is a fitting end to the love story because no one would ever offer greater hope and love than God.

It’s difficult to find true love from another person like us because we are all too self-interested. Our hearts are bent toward protecting and promoting ourselves. It is not hard to see! We live in a culture that constantly measures the success of every relationship by what we get out of it. We stay married only as long as it is benefitting to us, not really thinking about the other partner. We are more into finding true love from the other person. We are only after our own protection and security and rarely takes into consideration the security and protection of the other person.

Honestly, TRUE LOVE has never really been about romance or passion; it is about truth and value. It is about vulnerability and acceptance. It is about wholeness and finding peace. It is about discovering a foundation on which we can build our lives and on which we can place our hope and confidence. It is about feeling we are worth something. It is about sharing vulnerability and in the midst of it, feeling loved unconditionally. Beside this, we have fake love which fades away in no time leaving us broken and terribly hurt. If the end is seperation and hurt, why even go into it or continue with it?

Adam and Eve were the first to enjoy True Love. If you are familiar with the Bible story of the first sin, you will remember it involved a simple proposition; “Eve, if you will eat of this fruit, YOU will be like GOD.” It is strange that the serpent did not use the delicious looks of the fruit to tempt Eve. Instead, the serpent offered Eve a thought about herself. Eve asked herself a question she never wondered before, “what’s in it for me?”. This moment of self-discovery came with massive consequences. This act of disobedience led Adam and Eve to the startling realization that they had been naked this whole time. For the first time, they felt vulnerable and ashamed. They made clothes to cover and protect themselves.

God discussed their disobedience with them, because He knew that all of their relationships were falling apart as a result of their self-interest. Eve blamed the serpent for tempting her. Adam blamed Eve for giving him the fruit and then even went so far as to blame God for giving him Eve in the first place! (Genesis 2:18-23). Neither one wanted to take the blame but was concerned only for their self-interest.

The consequences for disobeying God were the loss of true-love relationships. Adam and Eve would never be allowed back into the perfect garden world. They lost everything. We know their new world of self-interest and self-protection, because we carry with us the same sin-bent reality. We long for real love because we were created from/with love, to love and be loved unconditionally. This is probably the most important point in this entire article:

“You will never find or experience the true love you seek in this world alone. Each of us and the world around us is too soaked in sin. The great news is that there is One who is the very definition of Love and you can be in a relationship with Him! (GOD).

LOVE remains a complete mystery. Science has not been able to explain it. Mathematics cannot predict it. Poets still wrestle with adequate words to describe it. We are all looking for true love, an unconditional love, but does it really exists?

One of our frustrations with love is our complete inability to keep it. Like sand slipping between our fingers, the harder we grasp, the faster it seems to fall through.

We are also aware of the truth that love cannot be manufactured. It cannot be bought or traded. It cannot be forced. It cannot be controlled.

Below are few things to think about when it comes to True Love:

1) TO LOVE AT ALL IS TO BE VULNERABLE:
we use the word LOVE to describe a lot of things. We love food. We love music. We love a good joke and we love having a good time. Using love to describe such simple things makes the word seem a little safer. It is safe because we are not exposed. A great cup of coffee cannot reject us. A favorite song does cannot use and dump us…hence cannot make us feel worthless or useless. But when we chose to share our life with another person, we inevitably make a choice to become vulnerable. Unfortunately, vulnerability leaves our defenses down and often we get hurt.

Opening our heart to another person is a big risk, and to be rejected, is one of the most painful experiences in life. It hurts the most because in love, we are most vulnerable. It’s worse than physical pain because it shakes us at the core of our identity, our hopes, and our dreams. Love seems to lift us up to the sky with its wings and sometimes leaves us mid-way crashing to the ground helplessly… leaving us with injuries and pains. We from there feel hurt, disappointed, hopeless, worthless and sometimes begin to see life in the negatives.

The truth is, the universe is too big for only one person to comprehend and even with that, the knowledge of the whole world cannot explain the entirety of the universe and the forces that operate in it. Science itself makes use of ‘infinite’ when explaining certain things within the universe. Why am I saying these: so that we begin to understand the beauty of PERSPECTIVE! Having a differing opinion from me doesn’t totally make you wrong, and vice versa. Our judgement of things comes from the totality of our experiences and encounters drawn from our environment (family, friends, culture, school, e.t.c.) as we grow up. So don’t be afraid to have a different opinion from someone nor be disappointed when someone has a different opinion from you.

I was watching an indian movie a few days ago and they made a very remarkable reference with the numbers ‘9’ and ‘6’ in describing perspective. I learnt something.

When you’re looking at the number ‘9’, another person standing directly on the opposite side is seeing the number as ‘6’. Now who among them is wrong? Both are right from their own perspective or side of view.

Let’s be honest, we can’t all see the world in the same way at the same time. Assuming the world is as small tennis ball, hold it in the air and you’ll never see all the sides at the same time!

We need other views/knowledge to have a broader view of the world. We need opposing views either to test the validity of our knowledge or views or to complete it.

But the ‘9’ and ‘6’ case also have a hole that needs to filled. Whoever wrote the number and does not intend to be misunderstood wouldn’t intend to make the number ambiguous… He/she would surely have a reference for the number; that is where he intends to be the top and bottom of the number and whoever that stands against the reference would surely know that he/she is wrong and would kindly accept it.

In the same way, when dealing with life’s issues and the universe (and its operating forces) we must find out from the author of life and the universe where He/She marks as His/Her reference. Am sure the Author/Giver of life and the Maker of the universe is not a man that we can go and ask directly,so we can only pray and seek for His divine wisdom to guide us right (Matthew 7:7-8). Like I always say, I don’t like quoting the scriptures but I think it also helps. 🙂

WISH YOU A LOVELY DAY!!

😀

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